Rice looking for strong 2nd half, but she won’t catch Pletcher

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Two years ago, Linda Rice made history when she became the first woman to win the training title at Saratoga Race Course.

There will be no repeat this year. In fact, in her opinion, no one is going to catch Todd Pletcher, the runaway leader in the training standings. With 16 racing days remaining, Pletcher looks to be uncatchable as he has 24 wins, 10 more than Chad Brown.

Rice, who finished second last year, has three winners in 31 starts through Thursday. She knew she was going to have a slow go at the start of this meet because she concentrated on having a strong Belmont meet, which she did. Rice and Pletcher tied for the top spot with 25 wins each at the Belmont spring-summer meet.

“I could see it was getting pretty close at Belmont and I made a run for it,’’ Rice said outside her private barn Thursday morning. “We had a great meet at Aqueduct and Belmont and I knew it would probably slow us down a little bit up here, which it has. I knew that going in, and I could live with it.’’

Rice thinks she will have a better second half of the meet. Her horses that were running so hard at the end of the Belmont meet, have had a chance to freshen up. There should be more wins coming Rice’s way, but not nearly enough to catch Pletcher.

“No, I don’t think we can come through the clouds,’’ she said with a laugh.